


as close as strangers

by JaeRianL



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Apologies, Awesome Melinda May, Bonding, Drinking, Drinking & Talking, Gen, Miscommunication, Season/Series 01
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-13 23:21:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29533986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JaeRianL/pseuds/JaeRianL
Summary: After a long evening of watching Jemma & Skye get progressively more and more hammered, the last person Fitz expects to have a deep conversation at two in the morning with is May.
Relationships: Leo Fitz & Melinda May
Comments: 4
Kudos: 25





	as close as strangers

In Fitz’s defence, after Skye and Jemma had conked out in a pile on the other sofa, he hadn’t expected anyone else to come into the lounge area. So when he turns around to find May standing in the walkway, an unusual hesitancy coming off of the usually stoic woman, he only jumps a little, and even manages to not spill any of his drink over the sofa. He hesitantly waves the woman over, leaning further into the sofa arm he’d been sat against to give her ample space. After some minutes, she eventually takes a seat, grabbing an unopened bottle of beer, raising it up at him in a silent cheers, not wanting to wake up the snoring women mere feet from them. 

They drink in silence, neither one of them wanting to disturb the peaceful atmosphere, although May’s critical eyeing up of the number of bottles of alcohol littering the table doesn’t go amiss. Fitz has never really known how to approach May. While she is a fair senior agent, it’s clear she’s taken a shining towards the other members of the team (no matter how reluctantly in some cases), leaving Fitz to feel like the unwanted kid dropped off at the doorstep one day with no explanation, and no return address. Clearing his throat, immediately garnering the woman’s full attention, he quietly whispers out an apology, eyeing Jemma to make sure neither she nor Skye show signs of rousing from their alcohol induced slumber. 

Melinda genuinely doesn’t know how to take the apology. She can tells it’s sincere, over the few months she’s known the young engineer he’s never been one to admit to mistakes he hasn’t made, but she can’t for the life of her think what would warrant this seemingly random apology. But her pensive silence does nothing to relax him, and soon he’s itching to leave for his bunk, getting as far as putting his empty beer bottle on the table to lever himself off of the sofa before she stops him dead in his tracks.

“Sorry for what Fitz?”

“Uh, well, for calling you the C name and, uh, being annoying in general.”

At this her brow furrows, because while she’d taken Fitz to be many things, a racist certainly wasn’t one of them.

“Oh god no! Not that C word, or the, uh, swearing C word, my mum would have my arse if I said those about or to anyone! No, I meant when me and Jemma kept talking about you being, you know, the horse thing.” 

Again, he only gets a momentarily confused brow raise in response.

“Fucking hell I’m really cocking this one up aren’t I? I’m trying to apologise for calling you by the moniker that you obtained after your last mission before transferring into admin!”

Oh. Of all the things Melinda had expected to hear, that certainly wasn’t it. She’s never held either of the scientists’ starstruck behaviour upon learning the fact from Ward, quite honestly after all this time she’d forgotten it’d happened in the first place. 

“It’s okay Fitz, you weren’t to know any better, but now you do, and so long as you don’t say it again we’ll be fine.”

“No, I know that, and trust me I won’t, but I know what it’s like. To be constantly called a name with bad connotations and for no one to apologise for it. I just didn’t want that to always be the case with you.”

Fitz doesn’t delve any deeper than that, knowing that May doesn’t like to discuss emotions that much, and instead starts to collect the empty beers scattered around the room, not saying anything else to the older woman. He deposits them in the small kitchen area, not placing them in the bin when Skye and Jemma could wake up at any second, and it doesn’t take long for the lounge to have been returned to its former state of cleanliness and order. Smiling at May, he dashes into his bunk, coming out moments later with some spare blankets and cushions. 

Carefully he pushes the coffee table out of the way, making a nest of pillows and blankets on the floor in case either woman falls loose of the pile they’d fallen into, before finally draping some blankets over them to keep them warm. Turning his head slightly, he finds himself at the receiving end of one of the warmest gazes he’s ever seen May give anyone, and he quickly turns back so that she can’t physically see him blushing even if she knows it’s there. Getting back up off of the floor, he folds a final blanket up into a neat pile before setting it on the sofa beside May, pausing momentarily before heading back to his bunk for the night. But before he makes it out of the lounge area, he feels her hand gently grab his wrist, easy enough for him to get loose of her grip should he wish to do so. 

“Thank you Fitz. You… you’re not an annoyance okay? You’re a good man and you’re on your way to becoming a great field agent.”

Nodding his thanks, stunned into silence over the sincerity of her words, he bids her a goodnight before stepping into his bunk, wondering what in the world just happened. A fever dream perhaps? 

In the lounge May is watching the girls clinging to one another, her grip on her bottle loosening as tiredness seeps into her bones. Maybe that blanket wasn’t such a bad idea after all. God these kids may end up being the death of her, but she doesn’t think she’d have it any other way.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you all enjoyed! Let me know what you thought & come find me on [ Tumblr](https://acetoshikosato.tumblr.com/)! Thanks for reading!!
> 
> Jae <3


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